Congestion notification reporting for a responsive network
Techniques for identifying network congestion and adapting network performance to relieve the network congestion are described. As described, a network element such as a switch reports network congestion indicators such as link level control frames to a network controller. The network controller uses the network congestion indicators reported from the network elements to identify congestion points, data traffic, and data flows experiencing congestion at a network level. The network controller then determines optimized control parameters for the network in order to reduce or alleviate the congestion at the congestion points.
1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a network switch, network congestion indicators for data traffic;
replicating the network congestion indicators for transmission to a network controller by:
identifying one or more network congestion indicators eligible for replication; and
selecting, using selection criteria parameters, one or more of the identified network congestion indicators for replication;
transmitting the replicated network congestion indicators to the network controller;
receiving optimized network control parameters for the data traffic from the network controller; and
executing the optimized network control parameters for the data traffic at the network switch.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network congestion indicators comprise one or more link level frames, wherein the link level frames comprise one or more of:
a PAUSE frame received from another network switch;
an acknowledgment (ACK) frame received from the another network switch; and
a link control frame received from the another network switch.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein replicating the network congestion indicators for transmission to the network controller comprises:
parsing the one or more link level frames;
identifying eligible link level frames from the one or more parsed link level frames;
selecting, using the selection criteria parameters, one or more eligible link level frames for replication;
replicating the selected link level frames using an Encapsulated Remote Switched Port Analyzer (ERSPAN) session on the network switch;
adding one or more designators to the replicated link level frames; and
encapsulating the replicated link level frames into an ERSPAN packet.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the one or more designators comprises one or more of:
a port identification;
a traffic class designation; and
a timestamp.
5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the selection criteria parameters comprise one or more of:
a sampling interval;
a frame protocol;
a message category;
an affected port; and
an affected class.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
aggregating network flow control information; and
transmitting the aggregated network flow control information to the network controller.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein executing the optimized network control parameters for the data traffic at the network switch comprises:
updating quality of service parameters at the network switch;
updating congestion management protocol parameters; and
updating a path for new data flow or an existing data flow.
8. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising:
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied therewith, the computer-readable program code executable by one or more computer processors to perform an operation, the operation comprising:
receiving, at a network switch, network congestion indicators for data traffic;
replicating the network congestion indicators for transmission to a network controller by:
identifying one or more network congestion indicators eligible for replication; and
selecting, using selection criteria parameters, one or more of the identified network congestion indicators for replication;
transmitting the replicated network congestion indicators to the network controller;
receiving optimized network control parameters for the data traffic from the network controller; and
executing the optimized network control parameters for the data traffic at the network switch.
9. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the network congestion indicators comprise one or more link level frames, wherein the link level frames comprise one or more of:
a PAUSE frame received from another network switch;
an acknowledgment (ACK) frame received from the another network switch; and
a link control frame received from the another network switch.
10. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein replicating the network congestion indicators for transmission to the network controller comprises:
parsing the one or more link level frames;
identifying eligible link level frames from the one or more parsed link level frames;
selecting, using the selection criteria parameters; one or more eligible link level frames for replication;
replicating the selected link level frames using an Encapsulated Remote Switched Port Analyzer (ERSPAN) session on the network switch;
adding one or more designators to the replicated link level frames; and
encapsulating the replicated link level frames into a ERSPAN packet.
11. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the one or more designators comprises one or more of:
a port identification;
a traffic class designation; and
a time stamp.
12. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the selection criteria parameters comprise one or more of:
a sampling interval;
a frame protocol;
a message category;
an affected port; and
an affected class.
13. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the operation further comprises:
aggregating network flow control information; and
transmitting the aggregated network flow control information to the network controller.
14. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein executing the optimized network control parameters for the data traffic at the network switch comprises:
updating quality of service parameters at the network switch;
updating congestion management protocol parameters; and
updating a switch selection for new data flow.